


The One Where Draco Gets Redeemed

by batyalewbel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: FIx It, Gen, The Deathly Hallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 01:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14033487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batyalewbel/pseuds/batyalewbel
Summary: What it says on the tin.AKA I've had conversations for years about all the ways Draco could have been redeemed in book or film. Here are several of those ideas.





	The One Where Draco Gets Redeemed

**Author's Note:**

> I rewatched Deathly Hallows Part 2 and discovered that scene they maybe filmed where Draco tossed Harry his wand? I didn't do that but like....I'm very bitter about this forever.

As they flew out of the Room Of Requirement with fire bursting out behind them, Harry could see the spells being cast in every direction just down the hall. Draco had gone silent behind Harry, clinging on for dear life. Harry saw the hex come but wasn’t quick enough to dodge it. Whatever the spell was, it hit the brook with a splintering crack and the broom spun out beneath them.

What little of the broom was left took them into a nosedive and it was only a quick _Arresto Momentum_ from Hermione that stopped them both from crashing to the ground. The spell caught them just inches from it, yanking from their fall like whiplash before letting them drop those last few inches.

It took Harry a moment to come full to the present. The horcrux was nearby and Harry could hear it like it was screaming at him and he could feel Voldemort near. His scar burned with enough force to rip his head in two and he pushed himself up on one elbow.

“Potter,” Malfoy said from somewhere beto his right but he was hardly listening. Somewhere behind them Hermione and Ron were saying something but the noise of it all was overwhelming.

Voldemort knew they had another horcrux in hand and  way to destroy it and he was raging and afraid and _screaming._

 _“Potter,”_ Malfoy said again and then somebody was pushing him back to the ground and yelling a quick, _“Protego.”_

“You’d the think the Chosen One would have some bloody survival instincts,” Draco sneered from above him as Harry’s vision finally cleared to see an unconscious Death Eater on the ground and Malfoy’s hand on his back.

“Sorry?” he muttered, one hand pressing to his forehead with a wince. Hermione and Ron were kneeling beside him.

“Harry are you okay?”

“Blimey Harry, I think Malfoy just saved your hide.”

And Draco was standing over them, his eyes flicking to Harry’s forehead like he _knew_ , but he said nothing. His chin jutted mulishly as he grabbed Blaise Zabini by the arm and dragged him away, blocking any hexes that got sent their way.

 

\---

 

When Harry came back to himself, lying cold and aching on the forest floor, he nearly gasped. Breath filled his lungs when they had once been empty, and his heart which had been still moments before, began to beat again.

In spite of life filling again, and the pain of it being almost unbearable, he remained utterly still. His arm thrown at an odd angle, his mouth open, his glasses askew.

He kept his eyes closed and listened to the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange murmuring, “My lord? _My lord?”_

“Silence,” the word was a gasping hiss and there were rustling sounds behind him.

Had Voldemort collapsed? Harry wondered. He felt the Dark Lord’s agony like his own with the destruction of each previous horcrux. Had this one cut him so deeply?

Somebody was offering assistance and Voldemort said he required none, but it was cold as ice and a lie.

Harry had shared his mind for far too long, he knew what Voldemort’s lies sounded like.

“You,” he said followed by a crashing sound and someone crying out in pain, “Examine him. Tell me if he’s dead.”

Harry lay there still as death except for the traitor breath passing his lips. Whoever Voldemort was sending would surely hear his heart beating for dear life.

Harry had evaded death twice now. But could he do it a third time?

He listened to the sound of careful footsteps crunching through the dry leaves papering the forest floor. He could feel the person kneeling down beside him.

A cool, long fingered hand reached beneath his jacket to press against his chest.

He held his breath and for a moment the world stopped.

He dared to open his eyes just a crack, to see the pale, narrow face of Draco Malfoy staring down at him, mouth tight and eyes wide.

And then Draco jumped to his feet and whirled to face Voldemort and all the others.

“Potter’s dead,” Draco said and Harry felt the world restart with a shock and the slightest nudge of a heel against his back. An unspoken signal to  _remain quiet._

And for once in his life, Harry listened to Draco Malfoy.

 

\---

 

It made Draco’s skin crawl to cross the no man’s land between the students of Hogwarts and Death Eaters. Voldemort was calling for the students to join him and his ilk, but they remained frozen in place, like the statues McGonagall had awakened a short time before.

Then his parents had to start calling for him, cajoling like he was a misbehaving puppy. It wasn't embarrassment that made him long to sink into the floor but fear. He desperately wished in that moment, that they would just abandon him or forget about him.

But his mother was reaching out to him and his father’s hands were balled into fists.

Draco had learned long ago to obey and in that moment, he could do nothing else.

After all, he very much preferred life to whatever Potter was experiencing now as a corpse in Hagrid’s arms.

So he came to his parents and Voldemort, standing over all of them, lording his victory over them. The Dark Lord embraced Draco as he crossed the threshold and it took every last ounce of willpower not to shudder as he did so.

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were standing just beside Hagrid and as Draco allowed himself to be pulled in towards them, his eyes were drawn towards the former Boy Who Lived, lying there like so much dead weight.

His mother had her arms around his shoulders and his father had a hand on his arm. They were calling him 'a good boy' but Draco couldn’t take his eyes off of Harry Potter. As he watched he could swear that Potter  _breathed._

Pale and still in Hagrid's arms, Draco could see his eyes seemed to flicker back and forth beneath closed lids.

And Draco could hardly breath himself. His mother and father loosened their grips, letting go and facing forward as Voldemort continued to gloat.

And then Longbottom had to come forward, one leg dragging behind him, carrying the bloody Sorting Hat of all things.

And he had something to _say._

Draco was half listening, but mostly he was watching Harry Potter playing Possum in Hagrid’s arms and somehow _nobody had noticed._

He looked back at his mother and father.

Father watched Voldemort and Neville, a comfortable sneer in place but his mother was looking at him. She seemed almost... unsurprised.

Her eyes flicked to the not-dead boy and back to him with a look of something like complacency.

She didn’t care what happened now, but for whatever reason she knew Harry Potter was alive and had said nothing about it.

She might have let him live but Potter’s hands were empty. He had no wand.

And at that moment his mother pressed _his wand_ back into his hand. Presumably pulled from Harry’s not-dead fingers.

If Harry was waiting for the right moment to come to life and attack he had no means to do it. He looked at his mother and back at Harry.

Mother gave the smallest shake of her head but Draco ignored her. Everybody was staring at Voldemort and Neville Longbottom as Longbottom proclaimed to the crowd that they would fight on without Harry Potter. And Draco Malfoy wordlessly leaned forward and pressed his wand into Harry’s still hands.

Hagrid stared down at him, silent and confused and Draco just shook his head and stepped back. Moments later Harry dropped to the ground with a grunt and took off running while Voldemort howled behind him.

Draco had no time to smirk or take pleasure in his small rebellion as his mother took him by the arm and marched him down the bridge, his father trailing behind them.

It seemed this time Draco was leaving Hogwarts for good.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm particularly passionate about Draco being the one to pronounce Harry *totally dead* in the forest but any one of these would have done or 30 other ideas I've had over the years.  
> So...anyway I'm bitter where are all the Drarry Deathly Hallows fix it fics? I'll take 30 where they don't bang please?


End file.
